Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Desolator - Unearthly Monument

DESOLATOR - Unearthly
Monument (HELLTHRASHER - CD 2013)

There are / were quite few bands, which used the
name Desolator (including a Polish one, which came back recently with the
re-recording of their old songs from early 90’s), but this Desolator is
Swedish. And I guess some of you may know them already from the split CD with
Resurgency. I actually have missed this split CD, but for sure I wanna get it
someday, as Resurgency is such an awesome band... Finally three years after the
“Gravefeast” demo from 2010 and two years since the mentioned split release, Desolator
comes back with their new release, which is “Unearthly Monument” album. It
brings attention from the first look, with an awesome artwork by Bart Kruszyk;
for sure it is one of his best works. It looks killer and fits the album title
perfectly, depicting the unearthly, terrifying monument.

When I’ve checked the tracklist of “Unearthly
Monument” it turned out that the album is more or less but a compilation of
songs from Desolator’s both demos, with only a couple of new tracks. It doesn’t
bother me though, as I haven’t had a chance to hear the band before, but it
will be interesting to find out one day what the original versions of these
songs were like. For the moment I am sure though that “Unearthly Monument” has
much more powerful and thicker production comparing to the demos, so probably
each of these songs just sound better here and is also better performed, maybe
taking the band to a new level. So then… here we have death metal band and
they’re from Sweden… Nowadays it is quite easy to think that they must be one
of these new bands from the current wave of old school death metal, which would
be taking influence from Entombed, Dismember, Autopsy, etc. Ha, such thinking doesn’t
give a justice to “Unearthly Monument” and I think that even the label, when
mentioned Grave, Entombed and Dismember in the advertisement, was wrong. In my
opinion Desolator has very, very little in common with the classic Swedish
death metal sound – and thus I laugh, when I read in reviews, when someone
compares “Unearthly Monument” to “An Evil Shade of Grey” for instance, as
they’re two completely different albums (to remind you - “An Evil Shade of
Grey” is one of the most atmospheric, dark Swedish death metal LPs from the
early 90’s)!!! Ha, fuck that… Some people probably think that it is just cool
nowadays to mention such albums in reviews, even if they have nothing in common
with the music from the album you review. But that just shows the competence
and knowledge of some reviewers.

But if not Swedish death metal then how does Desolator
sound like?

Well, there are few bands, which come to my
mind while listening to “Unearthly Monument”. One, which is the most obvious
for me is… Vader. Yeah, I think that Desolator has quite similar feeling and
aggressiveness, definitely there are many moments and riffs, which strongly
remind me Vader (even the guitar tone is similar; luckily the vocals are way
different to Peter’s, so they make a difference)… Just listen to such
particular opening riffs and whole fragments like those from such songs as “Desolated”,
“Mass Human Pyre”, “Infernal Gathering”… What do you think? For sure it sounds
alike, at least in my opinion. Together with Vader I would mention then some
American death metal, from bands such as Monstrosity, even Malevolent Creation…
And if there are any Swedish bands, which I could maybe compare “Unearthly
Monument” to then they would be Vomitor and Seance (but only from their debut
LP “Fornever Laid to Rest”!!!). Vomitory especially may have had some influence
on Desolator and in few riffs and parts there’s quite strong resemblance. But forget
about comparisons… I am sure that they’re unimportant, especially to the band…
Everyone would rather want to know if the music is any good at all? Well, I
think that it is… But when I listen to “Unearthly Monument” I find one problem
– I just think that Desolator is not quite as good as the mentioned Vomitory;
or any other band, which I mentioned in this review. Don’t get me wrong; I
think that “Unearthly Monument” is a solid and decent effort, I quite like this
album and I think it is worthy having in the collection, but at the same time
there were many albums, which I listened to recently, which were just better. I
feel like the whole album could have been slightly more powerful and
aggressive. And more so, its biggest fault is I think the monotony of this
music. To be honest, too many songs here sound just similar to the previous
ones and the fact that the whole album is almost 50 minutes long doesn’t help.
But I don’t know if it would help with anything, if the band decided to drop
off two or three songs… Even if the material is fine and each song has
something to offer, the whole is just not capable to really thrill me and cause
the bloodshed. I miss some ferocity, something really effective… The way “Unearthly
Monument” sounds is OK, but would I miss much if I’ve never heard this album? It
just not a material for timeless classic, but only a decent death metal record,
with some great riffs and some great moments, but also with some less exciting
parts here and there… You can pick it up, if you’re a diehard death metal collector
– then I am sure you’ll like this album, but if you’re more demanding then you
may find this album as just boring. I am somewhere in between, torn between
these two options… I don’t mind when “Unearthly Monument” is playing, but does
it cut my throat and rip the guts out? No, I am afraid it doesn’t.

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This blog is first and foremost to remind the UG metal community my work on PANZERFAUST zine, so I'll try to exhume my old interviews and reviews from that zine.

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